Thermal and a Quarter have never been ones to rest on their laurels. They were the first in India to release a concept album, they released an album on a custom user-license modeled on Creative Commons and then not-so-long-ago launched their most ambitious effort yet – a triple album. They then decided to raise the bar higher. TAAQ played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – the world’s largest arts festival, in 2013. If playing 26 nights back-to-back wasn’t impressive enough, they also won the Spirit of The Fringe award. “Maybe someday, we’ll find plan B in a hit movie” – This is it, TAAQ (2008) It was indeed serendipitous when frontman Bruce Lee Mani sang these…

While not filled to the brim with mystery as last time, the lineup at this edition of The GoMad Festival was interesting and so was the approach the organizers had decided to take. This time bands had one-hour slots with half-hour soundchecks between performances! As the morning chill dissipated slightly on Day 1 with the arrival of the tardy and patchy sun, the festival kicked off with the rather interesting band from Chennai. The F16s were a perfect pick-me-up for people who made it to their set at the Blubaloo stage at 11 a.m. While we weren’t surprised that they claim to gain influence from bands like The Black Keys, The Arctic Monkeys, Jet and The Strokes they do…

One of the first extreme metal bands to emerge from Dubai, U.A.E. Nervecell has supported legendary bands such as Metallica, Anthrax, Morbid Angel and Suffocation are the torchbearers for a Middle Eastern wave of metal. WTS got the chance to interact with Rami Mustafa, the guitarist of Nervecell and here’s what he had to say about the band and their experiences… WTS: Nervecell has shared the stage with a bunch of international acts such as Metallica, Sepultura, Machinehead etc. How was the experience? RM: Oh it was great! We are old fans of these bands, since we were kids, everyone one of us in the band grew up listening to Metallica, Sepultura, Machinehead and for us to get…

Among the sudden glut of international acts that decided to tour India, Santana was probably the biggest in terms of album sales and radio play received. From playing at Woodstock to having a career revival in the late 90’s, Santana has managed to keep their music fresh for most part at least (lets ignore the Chad Kroeger collaboration, shall we?) While his latest outings have been criticized in some circles, there’s no denying that the man is an absolute legend. Thus a jaunt to the venue at Thanisandra, my second in two weeks, would have to be undertaken even if it meant cutting work early. Most Bangalore concert-goers are accustomed to a 8 o’clock start so when…

This “Break Free” is a strange beast to tackle. It is roughly advertised as “the event where Kailash Kher makes an appearance” and the crowd that has turned up has absolutely no patience for anything other than to listen to some Kailash K. They are large in number, crammed into an enclosure in the foyer of an already crowded mall and are forced to listen to music that they could absolutely not give two hoots about. The protracted nature of the contest – three separate tracks for classical, fusion and rock each with three bands in each track, make matters worse for the impatient crowd. The MC is over-enthusiastic and gabby but she tries her…

We woke up at the campsite, post the madness of the previous night’s campfire and jamming, with the hypnotic and primeval sounds from the Nilgiri tribe’s customary invocations at the festival, and rushed to Stage 1 to watch La Pongal, the first act of day 2. They kicked off with a group of thappattam players performing off-stage, amidst the audience, trying to harmonize with the band performing on the stage. It was a fearless attempt to give the gig a grand start, and though the sync slipped a bit, no one seemed to mind. La Pongal features Anthony Daasan on lead vocals, as much a comic relief as he is a brilliant singer. He made the “welcome” announcement…

Question: Who organizes a rock concert and has only chairs in the arena? Who invites one of the biggest arena-rock bands of the 80′s for a performance and expects the audience to be seated throughout the gig? Answer: The ‘organizers’ of the Foreigner concert. The much-awaited Foreigner + Niladri Kumar concert was terribly scheduled for one. The BJP to celebrate their 1000th day in power had organized a large scale rally in Palace Grounds, where the said gig was to be held. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there was also a fish mela (!) and few other programs happening at Palace Grounds. This meant that the concert was shafted (no, I…

The Hindi-rock genre has been much maligned in the recent past. A large percentage of the output that’s clubbed (sometimes unfairly) under this sub-genre is the MTV-friendly dreck that you hear on your local radio station during peak-hour traffic. Enter Parvaaz – their official bio steers clear of the H-word and classifies them as “blues/psychedelic rock”. One listen to their music and you realize that Parvaaz are indeed a band that are deeply rooted in 70s Brit blues-rock, with the added twist of Hindi/Urdu/Kashmiri lyrics. The venue – Italia – known more for its vegetarian Italian food (!) than its live music, provided the setting for an intimate, smoke-free gig. Parvaaz, joined by their new bassist…

It’s not often that you get to see a bass guitarist steal the band’s thunder (had to slip in a vague Harley reference there), but the Bangalore leg of the Harley Rock Riders gig at the revamped Kyra bore witness to this. The line-up at the concert included the Delhi-based Half Step Down, local favorites Thermal and a Quarter and a host of Harleys making up the supporting cast. Swarathma’s Jishnu was on stage in an unfamiliar emcee role and had traded his usual garb for a Harley Davidson jacket! Half Step Down, led by vocalist Dhaval Mudgal (who happens to be Shubha Mudgal’s son) was the first band on stage and boy, did they kill…